HYANNIS, MA – Georges Bank is littered with scallops. Biomass there is extremely high, and the enormous 2013 year class promises to fuel the fishery for several years to come.
Just not in 2015.
“There are a lot of scallops out there, but they’re still pretty small – not a lot of meat on these animals yet, but certainly a lot of numbers,” said Deirdre Boelke, scallop plan coordinator for the New England Fishery Management Council and chair of the Scallop Plan Development Team (PDT).
During the council’s Sept. 30-Oct. 1 meeting here, Boelke provided an overview of this year’s spring/summer scallop surveys and an update on Framework Adjustment 26, which is under development and contains specifications and management measures for the 2015 fishing year (see CFN August 2014 for more details).
About the surveys in general, Boelke said, “The resource was very extensively covered this year, as it has been in recent years.”
Read the rest and much, much more in the November issue of Commercial Fisheries News.
Read online immediately and download for future reference.
Updating...